Princeton Seminary Launches Next Generation Faith and Health Initiative

This fall, Princeton Theological Seminary introduced the Next Generation Faith and Health Initiative, a new institutional effort to explore and strengthen the role of faith in promoting holistic well-being, particularly among young adults.

Led by the Office of the President and the Office of Continuing Education, the two-year pilot program seeks to expand the body of scholarship in this area through thought-provoking public conversations with preeminent experts across a variety of disciplines and faculty research about the intersection of faith formation, young people, and flourishing.

“As Christians within a leading theological institution, I believe this to be an opportunity for Princeton Seminary to claim an explicit role in shaping the faith and health of our society,” said President Jonathan Lee Walton, PhD. “I believe the Next Generation Faith and Health Initiative is an opportunity to make explicit what has long been implicit in our tradition — faith is not incidental to flourishing, but essential.”

For Annah Kuriakose, MTS ’24, MD, who serves as project coordinator for this initiative, the goal of the work is clear, “How does Princeton Theological Seminary help shape a generation of young people who are equipped to be well in the world — for themselves, but also for their families, their communities, and their wider contexts?”

Kuriakose, whose background includes earning her medical degree and teaching in impoverished and underserved areas, contends that the work is critical because “the development and formation of young people really impacts health outcomes. The ways that we think about our bodies and our behaviors and how we interact with our environments — including spiritual resources and social resources — really matter for health outcomes.”

I believe the Next Generation Faith and Health Initiative is an opportunity to make explicit what has long been implicit in our tradition — faith is not incidental to flourishing, but essential.

While religion and medicine have been studied for thousands of years, a more nuanced understanding of faith’s role in flourishing — an optimal state of being across all aspects of someone’s life — is emerging in research.

“Religion is one piece of faith and medicine is one piece of health,” said Kuriakose. “[The Next Generation Faith and Health Initiative] intends to provoke a broader Christian understanding of flourishing, optimizing wellness and health in multiple realms — whether that’s spiritually, or physically, or emotionally.”

Two components of the initiative began this fall — the establishment of a faculty reading group and two community events held at the Princeton Public Library with experts in public health, theology, academia, and science. Each brought an interdisciplinary approach to expanding the dialogue about the connections between faith, health, and well-being for young adults.

In November, President Walton led a discussion about the relationship between spirituality, adolescent mental health, and public health outcomes with Dr. Lisa Miller, clinical psychologist and Columbia University professor, and Dr. Howard K. Koh, Harvard University professor and former U.S. assistant secretary for health. In February, he welcomed the Rev. Dr. Suzanne Watts Henderson, MDiv ’90, senior director of faith and health for Interfaith America, and Dr. Almeda Wright, professor of religious education at Yale Divinity School, for a second conversation about how spirituality and religious diversity can influence heathy communities.

Dr. Kenda Creasy Dean, Mary D. Synnott Professor of Youth, Church and Culture, led the faculty reading group, which consisted of eight additional faculty members who represented a range of specialties. Over the course of six months, the group read leading research and publications about the relationship between young people, faith, and positive health outcomes. While the connections among these three areas were “no surprise” to Dean and her colleagues, she believes the recent, wide-spread attention new research is garnering will help “raise awareness about the life-and-death importance of churches’ work with young people.”

“Anyone who works with youth ministry or with a congregation has seen ample evidence of this connection,” she said. “Youth ministry is quickly becoming an important player in addressing the adolescent mental health crisis, but its significance is often explained as, ‘Well, churches offer young people self-esteem and community.’ Yes, but the critical factor is that the church also offers them God. No ministry can lose sight of that.”

Dean and her colleagues also discussed how Princeton Seminary could contribute to the growing body of scholarly work and how the findings can make real-world impact.

“By bringing people together across academic interests, the Next Generation Faith and Health Initiative models how congregations can convene stakeholders from multiple sectors to address real issues of community concern and demonstrate how theology matters to daily life,” Dean said.

The Next Generation Faith and Health Initiative models how congregations can convene stakeholders from multiple sectors to address real issues of community concern and demonstrate how theology matters to daily life.

“While research identifies faith as a key determinant of health, faith communities have seldom mobilized this data in the service of Christian discipleship, least of all in youth ministry,” President Walton added. “Faith formation with young people must be seen as a public health imperative in which faith communities play an essential role.”

President Walton, Kuriakose, and Dean each emphasized that Princeton Seminary is uniquely poised to make meaningful inroads in the connection between youth faith formation, health, and holistic well-being because of its decades-long commitment to young adults. For more than 30 years, the Seminary’s Institute for Youth Ministry has shaped Christian leaders for thoughtful, just, and creative ministry with young people, through research, programs, events, and resources. Most recently, the Seminary launched the Polaris Young Adult Leadership Network in 2023 through a $4 million grant from the Lilly Endowment, Inc. The project strives to amplify and support the leadership of Christian young adults as they build faithful, thriving communities. The Next Generation Faith and Health Initiative is another avenue to build upon the Seminary’s existing work and create new opportunities for research, coursework, partnerships, conferences, public health education, and more.

“For decades, Princeton Seminary has been a global leader in the theological study and practical training of youth and young adult ministry,” said President Walton. “Through this new initiative, we will amplify and extend Princeton’s role as a premier institution for theological leadership in faith formation and flourishing for the next generation.”